We're thrilled to share that Five Rivers MetroParks (MetroParks) in Dayton, Ohio has won 1st Place in the Marketing Innovation category from the Ohio Parks and Recreation Association for their launch in OuterSpatial earlier this year!

MetroParks did an incredible job developing their content and leveraging OuterSpatial's toolset to create an engaging mobile experience for their visitors. They were able to go from onboarding into OuterSpatial to an extremely successful launch in a few short months — even while dealing with uncertainties and resource constraints introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the award submission:

MetroParks’ marketing department chose to work with OuterSpatial… because it would take much less time and expense than creating a custom mobile application and ongoing maintenance is provided as part of the partnership. Since the data comes directly from MetroParks, the maps and content that users access are more current, complete and accurate than the user-generated data in the popular crowdsourcing trails apps.

MetroParks ran a successful marketing campaign to lay the groundwork for their launch. Their campaign included promotion on their website, print and digital ads in local media outlets, promotion via the agency’s existing social media accounts, and a Facebook ad.

They also leveraged Featured Content and Outings in OuterSpatial to publicize the agency's Trails Challenge, a program that encourages visitors to "independently explore various trails for a chance to win prizes." The challenge generated considerable interest among MetroParks' visitors, many of which uploaded photos using OuterSpatial to share their trail experience with others.

All in all, the MetroParks launch was a resounding success. The agency blew through their goal of 1,000 downloads within two days of their launch in OuterSpatial. To date, more than 4,500 MetroParks visitors have downloaded the app.